9 apps to prep you for planting season

Planting season is creeping up, slowly but surely. Technology advancements makes planting incredibly different than it was 5 or 10 years ago: farmers drive tractors hands-free, check irrigation pivots from home, and post pictures to social media straight from the field.

Here are 9 apps to get you prepared before and help during planting season:

Corn Planting Calculator

Use this app to provide real-time calculations for planting corn from specific inputs resulting in the correct spacing of the corn being planted. Inputs such as population desired, cost per acre, seed counts and spacing in inches or metric format are achieved. This app is available in the iTunes Apps Store.

JD Link

This equipment management app from John Deere is a "telematics system designed to remotely connect owners and managers to their equipment, providing alerts and machine information including location, utilization, performance and maintenance data to manage where and how equipment is being used." Find it for you Apple or Android product.

Apps for local and nationwide radar

Farmers for the Future member, Dave Kreer of Hickory, Pennsylvania, uses numerous weather and radar apps during planting season, especially after the wet, cold spring last year. "WKYC Radar displays all U.S. radars - useful if weather is still beyond your nearest radar range," recommends Kraeer. This app is available free for Apple and Android devices.

Tank Mix Calculator

"Tank Mix Calculator is a good one that gives you a breakdown on your sprayer tank mixes." – Ben Jones, Royal, IA

This TapLogic agriculture app is provided free for Apple or Android users to quickly and easily generate a tank mix. Just enter your acreage, tank size, and carrier volume. Next, select your chemicals from our list or add your own. Tank Mix Calculator will then provide you with the number of loads required to spray your acreage, along with full and partial load mixes of the chemicals you selected.